Frank Britnell first smelled New York City sewage sludge in the spring of 2008 after it had been spread on a farm near his home. The odor hung in the air for weeks. Swarms of flies descended on the area. Soon Britnell joined a chorus of folks in northwest Alabama trying to stop the flow of big-city waste to their towns.

At the other end of Franklin County, John Petree, a school bus driver who farms 800 acres, jumped at the chance to get free fertilizer from New York City. Dozens of other farmers waited for their own truckloads.

The conflict that played out over the next year in towns like Red Bay and Russellville is a common saga in rural America. But it is not just the tale of how the waste New Yorkers flushed flared tempers and tilted small-county elections.

It’s a story about how a question that faces every city in America (namely, what to do with sewage sludge?) has fallen from the list of national priorities. It’s a story about how cities like New York and companies like Synagro Technologies stood by and even benefited from the current sludge disposal system, despite its shortcomings. And it’s a story of how people like Britnell and Petree feel the impact of these choices.

NYCSludge examines the relationship between Synagro, the nation’s dominant sludge-hauling company, and New York City, by far the largest producer of sludge in America. We investigate whether or not the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules governing sludge are being followed. We explore the long-term and largely unexamined issues surrounding the safety of farmland application, the nation’s most popular and most-criticized form of sewage sludge recycling.
Through the lens of folks like Britnell and Petree, NYCSludge stares down a problem that tends to stay out of sight and out of mind – until it comes to your backyard.